Drivers Door Controls
2012 GMC Sierra 1500. The driver's armrest controls, for front passenger window and both side mirrors, have stopped working. Initially, I was unable to raise/lower the front passenger window, al...
Forum Discussion
Thought I would post the resolution to this issue:
I figured I would try the least expensive and least time-consuming fix first, so I (thanks to the suggestion of folivier and after watching a couple Youtube videos) removed the drivers door interior handle, removed the bezel for the switches in the arm rest, and removed those switches.
I took the switches apart (unclipping the two halves) and removed the rubber gasket between the upper and lower half of the switches, allowing access to the contacts.
Using a pencil eraser (Youtube suggestions ranged from scraping with a screwdriver tip, rubbing with sandpaper, rubbing with a cleaning solution to rubbing with an eraser - I took one of the least intrusive methods), I rubbed away what appeared to be minute corrosion until contacts on both sides were clean and shiny.
Replaced the switches and voila! everything worked.
Couple comments about this procedure:
Not as difficult as I anticipated - whole operation took way less than an hour.
The corrosion was almost imperceptible - but it was obvious (used a magnifying glass to make it easier) on the exact switch contacts that were causing the problems.
Thank god for Youtube (and those who visit forums who have some knowledge of these things). I watched a few other videos, some by working mechanics, and many did not even try this process, but just chucked the switch and replaced with new. Had I gone that route, it would have been way more costly than this $O fix. Other than the corrosion, the switches looked pretty good and certainly not worth throwing out.
So, thanks to all who participated in this thread.
Marv
I figured I would try the least expensive and least time-consuming fix first, so I (thanks to the suggestion of folivier and after watching a couple Youtube videos) removed the drivers door interior handle, removed the bezel for the switches in the arm rest, and removed those switches.
I took the switches apart (unclipping the two halves) and removed the rubber gasket between the upper and lower half of the switches, allowing access to the contacts.
Using a pencil eraser (Youtube suggestions ranged from scraping with a screwdriver tip, rubbing with sandpaper, rubbing with a cleaning solution to rubbing with an eraser - I took one of the least intrusive methods), I rubbed away what appeared to be minute corrosion until contacts on both sides were clean and shiny.
Replaced the switches and voila! everything worked.
Couple comments about this procedure:
Not as difficult as I anticipated - whole operation took way less than an hour.
The corrosion was almost imperceptible - but it was obvious (used a magnifying glass to make it easier) on the exact switch contacts that were causing the problems.
Thank god for Youtube (and those who visit forums who have some knowledge of these things). I watched a few other videos, some by working mechanics, and many did not even try this process, but just chucked the switch and replaced with new. Had I gone that route, it would have been way more costly than this $O fix. Other than the corrosion, the switches looked pretty good and certainly not worth throwing out.
So, thanks to all who participated in this thread.
Marv
